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We drove East out of Hanoi, crossing the Red River and heading over the alluvial plain to the coast, where we boarded our quaint wooden boat (twin cabins all with en suite, a comfortable saloon and roof top sun deck) for the short cruise to Halong Bay.  The name means sunken dragon, and it was believed that the thousands of limestone karsts represent its jagged tail.  This is a UNESCO World Heritage area and as such is tourist central: the appropriate collective noun at the wharf wasn't a fleet but a crush of tourist boats all jockeying for position to pick up their bus load.  Nevertheless it was all quite laid back and enjoyable as we gradually edged our way through the crowded marina and out towards the islands.

On this leg we were joined by Amanda, an English woman taking early retirement following a successful career in investment management.  After lunch on board admiring the views, we visited Sung Sot (Surprise Cave), a massive (10,000sqm) cavern with impressive stalactite formations, sadly somewhat denuded as a result of having been used at times to hide half the Vietcong.

In the afternoon we went kayaking to one of the few islands with a beach, where Quan, Kim, Flick and Dave inspected the view from Ti Top hill, named after the Russian Astronaut.  Meanwhile on the beach a vigorous game of multinational football developed with Mr Hai, Jonny, Marcus and Quan joining in with locals and other tourists.  Then it was back to the boat for some swimming and jumping off the sun deck.  Dinner was a seafood repast.

After fresh rain overnight it was delightful to wake up to the view out of our cabin.  Following breakfast we went out for another kayaking expedition and then reluctantly had to head back for the mainland.  It would have been very pleasant to spend an extra night on board, exploring, swimming and kayaking.  But we had more adventures ahead of us so it was back to Hanoi for our last day.